Seems like we play the Pirates in a lot of these.
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Seems like we play the Pirates in a lot of these.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
From the other thread, re: moving the A’s…
The A’s want to move down the road to San Jose. Basically, out of Oakland, which is poor, and into silicon valley, which is not poor.
Outside of San Jose, the only semi-viable markets for teams to move to would be Charlotte, NC (questionable, in the Tampa/St. Pete manner) or Brooklyn/NJ (completely, totally viable for a franchise, but carving territory out of the Mets/Yankees cartel would take a planetary alignment.)
Not a fan of 4 game series.
Btw, Id really like to see this guy play. He’s already got 29SB’s in 23 games this year. He stole over 100 last year.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=571740
San Jose would be a good move for the A’s.
What would be a better AL baseball town Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa Bay or Portland.
From previous thread…
AAR,
The ’73 Rangers was so lousy because they had no pitching.
In ABPA world, pitchers are rated as Grade A (like a very low-ERA/low hit-per-inning guy like Jim Palmer or Tom Seaver), Grade B (like a Gaylord Perry or Phil Niekro, say), Grade C (John Montefusco or Bob Moose, a little over replacement-level, I guess) and Grade D (the rest of it). Immortals like Walter Johnson or freak-year-relievers like 1984 Willie Hernandez might get rated as A&B or A&C pitcher, nearly unhittable.
Most decent teams have at least one Grade B starter and a Grade C or two, plus a bullpen with some Grade B’s & Grade C’s.
Every pitcher on the 1973 Texas Rangers was a Grade D, with the exception of Jim Bibby (Grade C starter) and Steve Foucault (Grade C reliever). If you were managing that team, you had few pitching options. The starter would get pummelled, then you have nobody to bring in. Pretty hopeless.
But just for some sick fun, I’d play them against the ’27 Yankees. The results weren’t pretty.
Finding the silver lining in a 4 game series:
Having lived in both places, I think the Pirates should consider an extra night in Atlanta as a bonus.
San Jose would be a *great* move for the A’s. Which is why the Giants consistently refuse to give up their “rights” to San Jose. Basically, for the A’s to move to the valley the commissioner will have to tell the Giants to bugger off and just declare that San Jose is not Giants “territory” any more.
It really would be great if Selig would step in and force the Giants and A’s to come to terms. What is happening right now is good for no one. The Athletics are basically committing a petulant hunger strike, and it’s unfair to the other 28 teams in baseball who aren’t playing them on any given evening.
Fun fact: the A’s this year have a team OPS+ of 66.
Mark Belanger had a career OPS+ of 68.
3—Nashville absolutely could not support a major-league franchise.
It’s ridiculous that the New York area has the same number of teams as the city of Chicago.
On another point, I just purchased the Strat-Matic-computer version. The computer gives a play-by-play account. Apparently, the company does not have rights to use the team nicknames because, when I played the Braves against the Dodgers, the computer calls the teams the “Tomahawks” and the “Bums.” With SF and Arizona, it was SF and D-Backs, but it never used “Giants.” Weird that Strat-o-Matic would not have rights to use the trademarks.
Heyward out with a sore oblique today.
Must have been out having some wild sex last night.
There are a couple of cities that could maybe scrape by with a franchise – Charlotte, Buffalo, maybe Nashville or Portland or Salt Lake City. But all of them would be smaller natural markets than KC or Tampa, which isn’t optimal.
The obvious market for more teams is the NYC metroplex. There are 22 million people in NYC and it’s metro suburbs (NJ, CT, etc.) If you put four teams in metro NYC and each of them take 1/4th of that market share, each of them would have a market equal to that of the Atlanta Braves.
North Carolina native here. An MLB team in Charlotte would be a mistake.
Agreed RE: Charlotte. Unless you do something notably different with revenue sharing there aren’t any solid expansion markets out there.
Portland, Oregon? The Beavers, San Diego’s AAA team, recently moved to nearby Beaverton. Not sure an MLB franchise would do well there. It’s more of a basketball town.
Side note: While looking up attendance figures in pro sports in the Carolinas, I came to the realization that the Bobcats almost drew as well as the Hawks.
I’m usually not one to pile on the Atlanta-sucks-as-a-pro-town bandwagon, but Jesus.
@2
He appears to have been dropped in from another time. Could he be the reincarnation of…
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hamilbi01.shtml
Charlotte’s always been a hoops town. Atlanta, not so much…
As a fan of pretty much whatever pro sport is being run out of Atlanta, my reaction to seeing the Hawks win game one against the Celtics last night was “didn’t those guys move to Winnipeg?”
Seriously. I just assumed they died when Horford ripped his arm off.
BTW, Rajon Rondo suspended for Game 2.
I’m not convinced Charlotte would be a good landing place for the A’s. They’ve already got two awful franchises there in the Panthers and the Bobcats. Raleigh/Durha/Chapel Hill is about the same size, and they’ve only got the one hockey team. That said, it’s a very college-centric area, and I’m not sure how much they would draw here.
If MLB really wanted to get bodies in seats, the obvious place would be bringing baseball back to Brooklyn, but that’ll never happen because the Yankees have too much clout.
Great Moments in Quote-Clarifying Brackets
“[Pundits] help us out a lot by counting us out,” Josh Smith said Monday. “We like to prove people wrong. [Being summarily dismissed] is disrespectful.”
It’s not just the Yankees. Why would the Mets want to water-down their product, in-person or on TV with SNY?
Also, where would the new team play?
There’s a lotta Brooklyn that’s not terribly accessible to the suburbs. NY area folks don’t especially like going to the South Bronx or Flushing, but accessibility is not a problem for either. You can get in and out of there via automobile or a variety of public-transporation options.
Brooklyn would be a local franchise, far moreso than would the Yankees (who own northern NJ as well) or event the Mets. With that said, Brooklyn proper is home to 2.5 million people. That compares reasonably well with the Tampa-Clearwater-St.Pete MSA, with a higher concentration of wealth than the Bay area. And of course, a revived Brooklyn Trolly Dodger franchise would draw a lot of fans from around the area, even outside of the burrough proper.
Granted,for access, Jersey would be the better location, but for brand and franchise name, I’d go with Brooklyn. If they can steal the Nets from NJ, they can carry a MLB franchise.
On this same point, LA is a city of 18 million people and could carry a third franchise as well.
It doesn’t have to be Brooklyn. Northern New Jersey is probably the most logical destination on the planet for an MLB team.
I wouldn’t dismiss Staten Island out of hand as an alternative to Brooklyn. It’s easy enough to reach from Brooklyn and Northern NJ, and it’s lousy with space.
Does anyone think San Antonio could support a major league team?
Anyone think Montreal would be considered again?
@10 Mark if you’re into strat. You might check out strat-o-matic online, which I think is still run by the Sporting News, although it is changing quite soon thru SOM. You can buy a team that plays a 162 game schedule (plus playoffs for 3 division winners and 1 wild card team) for $29.95. I like playing the All Time Greats game. It’s great to put together teams with players like Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Frank Thomas, Josh Gibson, and also have the likes of Kurt Bevacqua and Ron Hassey on your bench. The biggest drawback is a plethora of 24-18 games. Still a lot of fun, and the first thing I check on my computer each day. (A 3-game series is usually played and posted around 11:30 CDT.)
Bryce Harper had not been born, the last time the Pirates played a playoff game.
I just can’t see how the A’s can stay anywhere in California with the state’s epic, continuous budget problems. That’s one more reason LA doesn’t seem viable. Sure, it’s got eighteen million people, but they’re disproportionately poor, relatively recent arrivals from Mexico who can’t buy the tickets to keep an MLB franchise afloat.
Since we’re throwing out wild ideas for expansion cities, why not Salt Lake City? The population is small but growing fast, sports are very popular in Utah, and the park’s offense level would make Coors Field seem like Dodger Stadium.
San Antonio is a pretty small MSA. About 2.5 mil total (including exurbs) and not notably wealthy. If they didn’t have the Spurs, maybe. But with the Spurs, I don’t think they’re a two majors town.
You could put together a tiered league with something like 48 teams, and a relegation/demotion set up, that including San Antonio and Nashville and a lot of other mid-major metros. I think that would be an awesome baseball league, actually, basically taking your higher AAA towns and promoting them to the bigs, with incentives to be promoted to the Major majors by winning. But MLB will never take that seriously as an option.
Salt Lake is growing and pretty awesome in general, but it’s smaller than Raliegh-Durham and a half mil smaller than Nashville.
“Since we’re throwing out wild ideas for expansion cities”
Las Vegas.
Too small, too many people underwater on their mortgages, too many casinos. No major sports league will expand into Vegas unless Nevada outlaws gambling, and I wouldn’t bet on that.
The largest distinct MSA in the nation without an MLB team is Riverside-San Bernadino, CA. It’s part of the LA basin, but distinct enough (out toward the canyons and the Inland Empire to be counted separately from LA-Long Beach. NYC is all one big MSA for the most part.)
Riverside-San Bernadino clocks in just over 4.3 mil people, or essentially the size of Boston or San Francisco.
If a league expands to Las Vegas, it will almost certainly be the NBA.
@3
In terms of viability, I would rank those markets:
1. Tampa Bay
2. Portland
3. Charlotte
4. Nashville
I do think Portland could sustain an MLB team, and there wouldn’t be a lot of geographical holdups, either. I wouldn’t think the Mariners would have much of a claim there.
Charlotte would be better than Nashville, but neither could really support it.
I actually think Montreal would work, if you didn’t put them in a hole without anyway out again. If they had a retractable roof stadium, I think it would be successful, and the city’s certainly big enough to support it.
Staten Island is a horrible idea. Brooklyn would work.
Hey nice pick up Freddie
Bummer, it should be 3-0. Why do 2nd base umps hate Michael Bourn?
How many frigging times is Bourn gonna be wrongly called out at second? Cost us a run.
Radio guys are all over the out at 2nd. Was it that bad?
So, Freeman hit one all the way to Nashville, didn’t he?
Bourn is really tired of being called out when he is safe.
@42, It was pretty bang-bang, but the tag was late and he totally looked safe.
Yeah, there’s just no reason why he was called out. None of the things that normally happen when somebody’s wrongly called out happened there.
Nice idea Eric
Pastornicky > Alex Gonzalez
Not to overtly be contrarian, but my TV’s super slow-mo made it look like Bourn was *just* out by a microsecond. That said, there’s no way you could tell that live, and the ball in no way seemed to beat him there.
Yikes. Can’t walk a guy hitting .130 to start the inning.
It was weird that Bourne was called out not because he was clearly safe (it was really close) but because the throw was so bad. Bourne has been called out earlier this year because the throws looked like it beat him even though he managed to avoid the tag. This time, the throw was a 1-hopper to the 3B side of the bag, so even if the tag does get there they’ll call the runner safe. But nope. They popped him here, anyways!
I think that’s the 4th or 5th time this year he’s been called out on close plays at 2B when he was probably safe.
@32
Baseball is the only American sport that could support European-style promotion/relegation. Major/Minor League Baseball and the English Football Association are very similar in terms of tradition and initial setup. They just went opposite directions in terms of the degree of control top-tier teams had over the system. There’s no way either league is reversing field on that now, though.
I can’t help but note that Mike Minor has not give us 8 innings of scoreless baseball. Mike Minor sucks.
Chip says every home run is long.
That’s a pretty good looking curveball.
Crap pitch there from Minor. Paid the price on it.
Should be 4-3.
Minor doesn’t seem to have it tonight.
Suffice it to say, Minor’s not pitching very well this evening.
Wow, Minor is just leaving everything up tonight….
Suck suck suck suck suck suck. How is 7 innings of scoreless baseball that damned hard, son?!
He trimmed his goatee is a little too short. Throwing his balance off.
Leaving everything up does not augur well for Minor’s next start at Coors Field.
Walking the pitcher? That’s a paddlin’.
Umpires certainly aren’t uncomfortable making close calls against the Braves. Maybe some time before the season is over, someone will do something about that.
Payback for Bobby acting like a red-ass all those years? I can totally see that. But I finally just finished watching The Wire for the first time so…
If there is any Braves fan that thinks Bobby badgering the umpires after every single pitch actually HURT the team, they must have never watched Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux pitch. Great pitchers made better by the fact the could go into the opposite battered box when they needed a strike.
Or John Burkett. Or Sweatin’ Andy Ashby. Or Shane Reynolds. I don’t think those three threw a single strike in an Atlanta uniform.
Nah. He didn’t go.
Never even came close to swinging on that one. Come on Fredi, get thrown out of one here.
If bobby Cox were still alive, he would have been tossed by now.
@67- I don’t know if anyone is watching the ESPN game but Bobby would have been thrown out four times already- the home plate umpire has been execrable.
Not saying it hurt the team then. Payback is a B, though.
Can someone explain why Mike Minor sucks now?
First 6+ run game for the Pirates in 2012.
Honestly, what’s the equivalent performance against a real team? Spontaneous combustion?
I guess 6 runs makes Mike Minor officially the suckiest starter the Pirates have faced all year.
Kemp just hit #12. Wow. They’re in Colorado, he may have 15 by the time the game’s over…
@72 – if this is payback for Bobby, then let Fredi act like Bobby, and let them payback the next guy. 🙂 But seriously, I think something halfway between Bobby and Fredi is probably best.
Caray again goes nuts over a fly-out from the Braves.
Thanks, Dan. And I take it the sun still sets in the west and bears still poop in the woods?
Why would you send Minor out for the 7th? I don’t understand this.
81- Durbin: When One Bad Performance Deserves Another.
@78, Fredi just doesn’t have remotely anywhere near the same level of juice. He’s got to try the honey and take his lumps.
Seven runs against the Pirates for Minor.
Durbin throwing gas(oline on the fire….)!
I’m sure glad that Fredi is leaving Durbin out there to get out of his own mess.
I think Durbin might be a bad pitcher.
This is like trailing a real team 20-3. I say we just keep Chad out there till he’s rolling the ball to the plate.
Great night for Hinske.
Mickey D has thrown a nice game. That drop-in curve is pretty tight.
Durbin had actually pitched well of late. However, I don’t blame Fredi for using him, Wren put him on the team.
It’s back! PHEW.
Sorry about that. I’ll have a brief recap up in a little while.
@64- your Simpsons reference has not gone unnoticed.
Also, this McDonald guy’s stuff got better as the game progressed. his curve was insane.
Adam, my thoughts exactly. It is awfully hard to watch the Braves lose and not be able to complain about it on Braves Journal. Mac, I know that doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it is one.
Recap is up.